In late 2014, the Russian ruble was launched into a free float by the directive of Russia’s central bank. The Russian regulator ventured into this measure in the attempt to withstand the worst ruble collapse for almost 17 years. The Russian ruble has lost about half its value against the US dollar since last year. So the central bank announced a free floating exchange rate of the ruble in November ahead of schedule. Andrey Cherepanov, the ex-chief of the foreign transactions department at the central bank, is an opponent of this policy. The decision raised his doubts about its legitimacy, so the ex-top official filed a lawsuit to one of district courts in Moscow. Andrey Cherepanov asserts that the refusal to keep the ruble exchange rate under control contradicts clause 75 of the Russian Federation’s Constitution. The main law reads that the central bank is obliged to ensure resilience of the Russian currency. However, the court validated introduction of a floating exchange rate of the Russian ruble. Andrey Cherepanov fully intends to pursue his course. He has already lodged two appeals: one to the central bank, the other is to the State Duma. Importantly, it was the State Duma who greenlighted the regulator’s decision by the decree on the main directions of the monetary policy for 2015. The legal action taken by Cherepanov is not the only case against the central bank’s notorious measure. Similar lawsuits have been rejected by another district court in Moscow and the Supreme Court. In every claim, a plaintiff states that the central bank’s refusal to conduct forex interventions and control an exchange rate of the national currency contradicts the law.
